in their lifetime, there's still much we don't know about this disease. But thanks to continued research efforts, we keep learning more about the biology of cancer. One of these recent discoveries could even transform our understanding of
However, a few mutations favour cell survival. If a sufficient number of"life extending" DNA mutations occur in a cell, this cell will become virtually immortal – starting a series of uncontrolled duplications that generate a cancer. This theory has been corroborated bywith drugs. So if cancer is caused by genetic mutations only, our ability to kill cancer cells may be limited.
Epigenetic marks are more subtle changes – like underlining a sentence with a pencil or using a bookmark to quickly retrieve a certain page. These changes are achieved by adding or removing small molecules to the DNA itself, or to the proteins that are closely associated to DNA. However, previous studies in this area hadn't had sufficient evidence to demonstrate epigenetic alterations could cause cancer in the absence of DNA mutations.
These therapies would reprogram cancer cells by changing the distribution of reversible epigenetic marks. This would allow cells to revert to their normal behaviour, thereby stopping uncontrolled reproduction.
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Source: Nature - 🏆 64. / 68 Read more »